Not many people shared the same connections that I had with Chris. Typically the friends you make in elementary school become long lost memories. That wasn’t the case for Chris and I. From 1st grade until now we had always stuck by each other’s side. And for my final goodbye I’d like to share our friendship to everyone.

First Grade

I first met Chris during one of those school concerts. The ones where they make your class learn random songs to perform in front of friends and families. My class was watching another class practice, I remember seeing a kid doing a back handspring on stage and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. This kid ended up sitting right behind me and I got to introduce myself. I told him my name is Jesse and I said his flip was super cool like any 6 year old would. He told me his name was Chris.We talked for a few minutes before having to go back to class, but I instantly knew I wanted to be his friend. Since we weren’t in the same class we never really got to hang out until we ended up in the same class the next year. But fortunately at the end of each year there was always a family BBQ. My step dad was the one that came for the bbq. He happened to be friends with Chris’s dad and I got to see and hangout with him right before school ended while our dad’s talked.

Second Grade

Going into a new class for second grade I felt pretty lost. I didn’t have too many friends from first grade and didn’t know too many people. I was never allowed to go to any friend’s houses or birthday parties so I didn’t have too many connections with people. But I remember vividly seeing the back handspring kid in my class. We pretty much instantly became friends by always sitting with each other during snack time. I remember clear as day he would always come in with either kiwi or palm sugar. I never brought snacks with me to school so Chris would always give me half of his snack and our other friend would give me a Gatorade juice box. Anyone who went to Hyman Fine back in the day knows that there were two playgrounds, one old wooden one, and one brand new one. Chris and I loved to play in the cylinder slide by the tire swing. That slide was our chill/meeting spot. We would always just sit in the slide and talk about kid things. I remember one day I came to school late but made it in time for recess. I went over to the slide and peeked inside, and Chris was there waiting for me. It was always like that and vice versa. Whenever Chris wasn’t at school I’d wait in the slide waiting for him, it was just our thing to do.

Third Grade

This was a special year. One that really defined our friendship for years to come. This was the year Chris and I began finding a passion for dance. This was the year that “Crank that Soulja Boy” came out. My brother had taught me the dance and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I taught it to Chris and for the entire year of third grade we thought we were the coolest kids ever 😂. Besides that, this year was pretty much the same as second grade. But the ending was pretty sad because I was moving at the end of the school year. Which meant I was gonna be at a different school for fourth grade.

5th Grade – Reunited

A little bit more than a year had passed since Chris and I saw each other. But when we realized we were in the same middle school we were hyped. We weren’t in the same class but we always sat with each other at lunch and hung out during recess. I remember the first day we had recess Chris did a backflip on the slant of the Wamsutta field. I was already mind blown by the back handspring from first grade, now seeing my first backflip in person was something else. For years to come I always dreamed of learning how to do one after that but we’ll talk about that later on. Chris and I’s friendship was pretty much how it was in elementary school. But sadly he ended up moving to another town for the rest of middle school.

7th Grade – We Meet Again

This was around the time Chris had started breakdancing. I wasn’t into it as much, I was into cwalking and jerkin at the time. I used to go over my friend Vichai’s house a lot around this time. He was friends with Jeremiah, one of Chris’s older brothers. Whenever Jeremiah was in Attleboro he would come and dance with us. Vichai and Jeremiah amazed me at the time with their breakdancing and it made me want to get into it more. One day Jeremiah brought his little brother to come practice with us, and mind you I didn’t know Chris and Jeremiah were brothers. So you can probably imagine our shock when we saw each other after like two and half years! Some how dance brought it back together into this one little basement. A couple times a year he would come down to practice with us and it was like our friendship was still going strong. This is really what pushed me to get into bboying.

8th Grade – Friendly Competition

Me and Chris kept in contact through Facebook. He was progressing at a crazy rate and I was suddenly starting to become jealous. It made me train and learn new skills to try to keep up with him but I just couldn’t. He was gifted but also worked so hard with all the bboys from Woonsocket. We would have little progression checks to see how the other was doing. Not too much happened during this year as we were just learning and growing.

High School – Best Friends Become Brothers

I’d break up the high school years like how I did with the other years but Chris move back to Attleboro at a random time during high school so all of it is just bunched up into my head 😂. At this time I had a friend group that consisted of Bounlee, Nick, Vee, and Ivan. We would stay after school or hit up the Y to bboy and hangout. Halfway through high school Chris moved back to Attleboro. At the time I was the only person he knew since all the people he met were back in 5th grade. Our friendship continued to go on just like how it was back in the day. I brought him to come hangout and bboy with my friends to the point where we thought we should make a dance crew. This was when “Limitless” was created. All of us went through high school together, always staying after school to bboy, going out to eat, hitting up the Ymca, and just enjoying our time together.

High School – The Dynamic Duo

Although we considered Limitless our brothers, Chris and I had a much more stronger bond together. So I’d thought I’d make a separate paragraph of just our memories through high school. We pretty much did everything together no matter how small it was. Chris used to go to the orthodontist with me just for the drive 😂. I’d go with him to get his car washed, the legendary red prelude. Before I got my license Chris would pick me up to go to school. He never needed to text me saying he was at my house because I could hear his exhaust from like 3 blocks down 😂. We would go out to eat together all the time and spot each other when someone didn’t have money. My first time at the casino was with Chris. We both left with like $250 that night. We would just go on little joy rides when we were bored and just talk about our dreams and goals in life. We would hit the gym together, you were always so caught up in how big your muscles were. I remember how I would be lifting and you would look at the weights and be like “that’s it?” But you said that with everything I did 😂 I will never forget the day I out lifted you and how salty you were and I finally got to hit you with “that’s it?” We had this meme war we would do where basically if we saw a funny meme we would crop our faces into it.

Senior Year – 2018 – Prime Training Years

These years were probably the most memorable of them all. If you knew Chris he was really big into bboying and flipping. We spent a lot of our free time going to open gyms in different places. We both had a dream to become professional athletes and these high school years we pushed hard for it. Almost every day we would find somewhere to go train. Learning new bboying skills, flips, or parkour. This was a constant learning stage. We both pushed each other to new limits and were there for each other every step of the way. We witnessed the blood, sweat, and tears the other had put in. We worked our asses off, there aren’t any words for me to describe these years. All I can say is that they’re unforgettable and I will forever be thankful for these years.

Until We Meet Again…

Once you become adults it’s hard to always be in contact with your friends. Some times things just don’t work out the way you want it to. This past year we went our separate paths and pursued our own lives. I wish I could’ve been there for you Chris, although we didn’t talk much I still cared for you and saw you as my brother. I hope you knew that. There’s so many memories and experiences that only you and I will share that I didn’t write about on here. All I can think about is how close of a bond we had from elementary through high school. There’s not many friendships that last that long. But the reason for it was because we became brothers. I won’t let you be forgotten. I’ll share your love for movement, I’ll make sure your dream will come true, I’ll keep pushing on until the day we meet again, love you bro 💪🏽.

Throughout my athletic career I’ve had the privilege to be apart of many acrobatic sports. This includes gymnastics, cheerleading, tricking, freerunning, and breakdancing. Being apart of all these communities I noticed a common thing, a lot of people in each of these sports have a tendency to hate on other crafts.

I’ve personally experienced this hate; I’ve seen it, heard it, and sadly have been apart of it myself. I’ve been on a gymnastics team that was quick to judge cheerleaders in their tumbling set ups, jumps, motions, and pretty much the sport itself. I’ve also been on the other end where I was on a cheerleading team that judged the way gymnast have to stick their landings, the different jump techniques, etc. I love and respect both sports equally. Whether I’m a gymnast or a cheerleader, my mindset has changed so that instead of comparing one another I just support both equally. It’s changed my whole mentality and broke my bias towards one particular sport. It’s opened me up to accepting other sports just as equally.

When I transitioned over to the tricking/freerunning scene I also noticed the bashfulness they had against cheerleaders/gymnast and vice versa. I’ve gone to a couple open gyms where cheerleaders and trickers were both training at the same time. Now being apart of both scenes I would switch back and forth whenever I trained. Each side just always had something to say about the other. It was always saddening to me because I love both sides. The cheerleaders would judge a tricker’s form or twisting technique, and on the other side trickers would be judging cheerleader’s stunting or jumps. I’ve even seen them hate on the white sneakers cheerleaders wear, like really? To me each sport has their own craft, nothing is right or wrong. Many athletes are quick to say that their technique and craft is the right way to go. But each sport has their different criteria and judgement on skills so there’s never really a “right way” to do things. For example trickers tend to do their fulls at a slightly horizontal axis while cheerleaders/gymnast tend to go more vertical. I’ve heard C’s and G’s (cheerleaders and gymnast) say “that doesn’t even count as a full” or say “it doesn’t count as a double because they didn’t go all the way over”. But in the tricking or freerunning community it still counts as a full regardless of axis. There’s really no way to determine what is right and what is wrong if it’s accepted in one sport and not the other. I just found it better to accept it as is and support others instead of being hellbent on fighting against it. It makes being connected to others much easier when you’re more accepting. I believe we should support each others sport and try to understand it more. Instead of being caught in one particular one and judging every other we all should be learning from each other.

The bboying (breakdancing) side of this conflict is a little different. We don’t usually flip much but when we do, we adopt tricking skills or some tumbling. Bboying is more on the tricking side of the spectrum where we don’t really worry too much about perfect form, the correct axis to spin at, or pointed toes. So whenever breakers do flip they tend to get bashed on more by cheerleaders or gymnast. But it’s also vice versa where bboys like to bash on C’s and G’s for being so strict on form. It’s always a constant battle between all the sports.

If I was never open to learning from other sports I wouldn’t have learned all the skills that I have now. I wouldn’t have broken a lot of the mental barriers or pushed past my limits. Once I accepted every sport as an equal I began to learn a lot from each one. Every sport can teach you something as long as you’re willing to learn. Accepting each other and learning from one another is a far better experience that being stuck in the same loop. To all the cheerleaders and gymnast reading this, try out some tricking or go out to a tricking event. To all the trickers/freerunners or breakdancers reading this, go try out some stunting or watch a cheerleading competition. I promise that allowing yourself to accept all these other sports you’ll grow as an athlete and as a person. You’ll learn new skills and connect with more people!

Like many athletes, cheerleaders normally end their athletic career after high school. Unless they plan on cheering at a D1 school or joining an all-star team, their last years of cheer take place in high school. That doesn’t have to be the case; Johnson & Wales University offers an amazing cheerleading program for those looking to continue their athletic career. “Read more” The team is lead by Coach Cassandra Dib and new captains Blaize Pandell, Gabriella Kandoyan, and Tiffani Harrington. (Former captains Amy Peralta, Christina Jeffers, and Nicolina Acompora)

Continue reading “Continuing your athletic career with Johnson & Wales Cheerleading.” →

I did a review on the taste of Ninja Melk on my last blog post. It’s delicious and worth trying. But what most people failed to test is if it really gives you the energy as an energy drink would…From my recent experience, yes it does!

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Battle of Fury is a three day tricking event that takes place at Trick DynamiX CT. Athletes from all over the U.S travel down to this one gym to throw down.

Continue reading “Battle of Fury. One of the biggest tricking events of the year. East Windsor, CT” →

YouTube star Ryan Higa a.k.a Nigahiga, wanted to create something different in the energy drink world. He came up with the crazy idea to have a carbonated milk style beverage. It’s truly a one of a kind drink that you don’t want to pass up on. For a couple years Ryan has been developing a unique energy drink made from organic milk. Yes an energy drink made from milk. Now you must be thinking “Ew that sounds gross!” I thought the same exact thing but boy was I wrong. I remember first seeing the product and made jokes about it with my friends but than I began to think…I shouldn’t “judge a book by its cover” and thought “don’t knock it until you try it.”

Continue reading “Carbonated Milk Energy Drink!? Ninja Melk is a new truly unique beverage.” →